On this day in 1916, the First Aero Squadron, organized in 1914 after the outbreak of World War I, flies a support mission for the 7,000 U.S. troops who, six days earlier, had invaded Mexico on President Woodrow Wilson’s orders to capture Mexican revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa “dead or alive.”

On March 9, Villa, who opposed American support for the newly elected president of Mexico, Venustiano Carranza, had led a band of several hundred guerrillas across the border on a raid of the town of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17 Americans. The mission to capture Villa, which eventually involved some 10,000 U.S. troops, was commanded by U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing, the future commander in chief of American troops during World War I. It was the first U.S. military operation to employ mechanized vehicles, including automobiles and the airplanes of the First Aero Squadron, which were used to scout enemy activity and relay messages for General Pershing.

Despite numerous mechanical and navigational problems, the American fliers flew hundreds of missions for Pershing and gained important experience that would later benefit the pilots over the battlefields of Europe. However, during the 11-month mission, U.S. forces failed to capture the elusive revolutionary, and Mexican resentment over U.S. intrusion into their territory led to a diplomatic crisis.

The aggressive U.S. pursuit of Villa and the popular support Villa enjoyed in Mexico had led Germany’s foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, to think Mexico might welcome the opportunity to launch a full-scale invasion of Texas. This thought led directly to the famous Zimmermann Telegram, a secret message sent by Zimmermann in January 1917 to the German ambassador to Mexico proposing a Mexican-German alliance in the case of war between the United States and Germany and promising Mexico financial aid and territory—including Texas, New Mexico and Arizona—in return for its support.

In late January 1917, with President Wilson under pressure from the Mexican government and more concerned with the war overseas than with bringing Villa to justice, the Americans were ordered home from Mexico. The Zimmermann Telegram, intercepted and decoded by British intelligence, reached the U.S. government in February; Wilson authorized the State Department to publish it in early March. Americans were outraged, and public sentiment began to move ever closer to support of U.S entrance into World War I on the side of the Allies. Furthermore, Villa’s aggression in the Southwest had aroused safety fears among the region’s inhabitants, leading many Western states to support defense bills that would become necessary to support the U.S. war effort, which Congress formally declared on April 6, 1917.

For his part, Villa continued his guerrilla activities in northern Mexico until Adolfo de la Huerta took power over the Mexican government and drafted a reformist constitution. Villa entered into an amicable agreement with Huerta and agreed to retire from politics. In 1920, the Mexican government pardoned Villa. Three years later, still a symbol of popular resistance against governmental repression, he was killed at his ranch in Parral by an unknown assailant.
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ashington, March 19 -- The Senate this evening, for a second time, refused to ratify the treaty of peace with Germany, and sent it back to President Wilson.

By a vote of 49 to 35, seven short of the necessary two-thirds of the members present, the Senate rejected the Lodge resolution of ratification.

It then adopted a resolution, proposed by Senator Lodge, to return the treaty to the President, advising him formally that the Senate had failed to advise and consent to its ratification.

The resolution reads:

"That the Secretary of the Senate be instructed to return to the President the Treaty of Peace with Germany signed at Versailles on the twenty-eighth day of June, 1919, and respectfully inform the President that the Senate has failed to ratify said treaty, being unable to obtain the constitutional majority required therefor."

Following this action, Senator Robinson of Arkansas, a Democrat, moved to reconsider the vote by which ratification failed. A lively parliamentary battle followed, in which the Republican mild reservationists joined the Democrats in an effort to keep the Senate from creating a condition which prevented further action on the treaty at this time. A ruling by Senator Cummins, who was in the chair, and refusal of the mild reservationists to co-operate further with the Democrats unless they were assured that the second vote on the treaty would be taken at once, cut short Mr. Robinson's efforts.

The Senate adjourned to meet again Monday, after the treaty had been ordered to be returned to the President. As that will have been done by Monday, the motion to reconsider cannot be made again, Senator Lodge said after the voting, because the Senate cannot reconsider action on a question over which, by its own vote, it has relinquished control.

What President Wilson will do now is problematical. No statement is obtainable at the White House concerning the rejection of the treaty.

On the resolution of ratification fourteen more Democrats voted to accept the treaty with the Lodge reservation than on the occasion of the former vote, just four months ago. On Nov. 19, when the Senate rejected the Lodge ratifying resolution by 41 to 51, but seven Democratic Senators voted to ratify: Gore, Myers, Owen, Pomerene, Shields, Smith of Georgia, and Walsh of Massachusetts.

Twelve Senators were absent or not voting . As a two-thirds vote was necessary to ratify, pairs were grouped in the ratio of two for ratification to one against. Senator Penrose, Republican, of Pennsylvania, was paired against ratification with Senators Harding, Republican, of Ohio and Nelson, Republican, of Minnesota, who were for ratification. Senator Fall, Republican, of New Mexico, was paired against ratification with Senators Newberry, Republican, of Michigan and McCumber, Republican, of North Dakota, who were for ratification. Senator Poindexter, Republican, of Washington was paired against ratification with Senators Cumins, Republican, of Iowa and Townsend, Republican, of Michigan, who were for ratification. Senator Smith, Democrat, of Arizona was paired against ratification with Senators Gerry, Democrat, of Rhode Island and Jones, Democrat, of New Mexico, who were for ratification.

Interest in the vote on the resolution of ratification centred in the Democratic attitude, as it was clear that unless a considerable number of them refused longer to accept the views of President Wilson, there could be no ratification by the Senate. Long before the vote was taken today Senators knew that the Democrats would not bolt the President in sufficient numbers to provide the needed two-thirds.

Fight Over Reconsideration

The Senate spent a listless day listening to speeches, but shortly after 6 P.M. a quorum call brought more than eighty Senators into the chamber, and the cry of "vote" was raised at once. The roll call on ratification was taken without more debate.

After Senator Cummins had announced from the chair that the resolution, having failed to receive the required two-thirds, was rejected, Senator Lodge at once presented his resolution to return the treaty to the President.

On this the vote was 47 to 37. Six Democratic Senators voted for Lt. Gore, Kirby, Reed, Shields, Walsh of Massachusetts and Williams.

Immediately after the adoption of this resolution Senator Robinson of Arkansas, under a prior arrangement with Republican mild reservationists, moved that the Senate reconsider the vote by which it had failed to adopt the resolution of ratification.

Senator Watson of Indiana moved to lay Mr. Robinson's motion on the table. This motion failed because mild reservationists voted with the Democrats to prevent the Robinson motion from being thus summarily disposed of. The vote was 34 to 43 against tabling the motion.

Senator Robinson, having vanquished those who wanted to prevent him from discussing the motion to reconsider, began to urge its adoption, when he was again halted by Senator Brandegee, who made a point of order against the motion.

He argued that the Senate had disposed of the matter by adopting the Lodge resolution to send the treaty to the President. After considerable parliamentary wrangling and the citing of precedents, Senator Cummins ruled, through he said that he did so with some doubt in his mind as to the correctness of his opinion, that the Robinson motion was not in order.

An appeal from this decision was expected, but to the surprise of Republican Senators it was not taken.

Debate on Second Treaty Vote

Senator Lodge said that if any Senators wished to vote again on the question of ratification, he did not wish to prevent them from doing so, provided the vote could be taken without any further debate. He said that he would ask unanimous consent that the vote be reconsidered if Senators would agree in turn that the vote be taken at once.

That did not fit in with the plans of the Democratic Senators, who had hoped to leave the motion to reconsider pending until tomorrow or Monday.

The irreconcilables, who had won their victory and were not disposed to have it snatched from their grasp, also found the prospect of another vote not to their liking. Senators Borah and Brandegee pointed out that some Senators had left the chamber, and had even left Washington, as soon as possible after the vote on the resolution of ratification.

'I have no objection to voting on this question as long as the Secretary can call the roll," said Senator Borah. "But I do object to a vote and I will not permit one tonight, unless the Senators who thought they had settled something and left the Senate are protected in their absence."

Senator Brandegee observed that as it seemed to be necessary to take several votes in the Senate to decide when a matter was disposed of, he would not object to Mr. Lodge's request for unanimous consent to reconsider, provided that the absentees were covered by suitable pairs arranged on the spot.

Hitchcock Urged Cooling Off

"I see nothing to be gained by voting again immediately upon a question which we have just voted upon once," said Senator Hitchcock. "My idea was for a day or two to let us cool off. Maybe in that time the matter could be arranged."

"I would think that after a year of debate we might ask for an end of this sort of thing," retorted Senator Lodge. "To keep this thing here just to fool with it for a day or two more is not to be thought of."

Senator Norris then suggested the absence of a quorum with a view to learning. He said, how many Senators had left the chamber. After the roll call Senator Curtis, the Republicans whip, stated that the call disclosed that Senators Ball, Republican, of Delaware, Sherman, Republican, of Illinois; McLean, Republican, of Connecticut, and Thomas, Democrat, of Colorado, were absent and unpaired.

Senator Robinson then moved again that the Senate reconsider the vote of ratification and at the same time to request the President to return to the Senate the Treaty and accompanying papers. This was a way of repealing which was an obstacle to the motion to reconsider under Senator Cumming's ruling.

Senator Lodge made a point of order against the motion, but before the chair could rule Senator Robinson withdrew his motion. He did this on receipt of information from the mild reservationists that they would not support his motion unless he agreed that the second vote be taken immediately on ratification. The mild group's decision to stand by Senator Lodge's wish was reached at a hastily summoned conference just outside the door of the Senate chamber.

Senator Lodge once again asked unanimous consent that the Senate reconsider its vote, repeating his statement that he was unwilling to debar any Senator from voting again on ratification. But Senator Hitchcock observed that there was nothing to be gained and he objected.

The hope of the mild reservationists and of some Democrats was that when the Senate reconsidered the vote by which it had rejected the ratifying resolution some Democrats would change their votes and support ratification. A number of Democrats were urged to do this on the ground that having made their record of consistency on the first roll call they could afford for the sake of ratifying the treaty and bringing to an end the state of war to vote against the President.

Peace Declarable Move Waits

Senator Knox then obtained the floor and moved that the Senate proceed to consider his resolution declaring the state of war between the United States and Germany at an end, by repealing the resolution declaring war, adopted in April, 1917.

Senator Lenroot said he agreed with Senator Knox that the Senate should soon consider that or some similar measure, but he urged that it be deferred.

Senator Lodge thereupon moved that the Senate adjourn until Monday, at which time, he said, the Knox resolution probably would be called up. This motion prevailed.

Before it reached the question of ratification the Senate adopted the Lodge amendment to the preamble of the resolution of ratification, providing that silent acquiescence in the Senate reservations by the European powers would signify their acceptance of them. It rejected, by a vote of 41 to 42, Senator Brandegee's amendment, providing that the President must deposit notice of ratification within ninety days after the Senate acted.

Lenroot Assails President

Senator Lenroot delivered a speech in which he said that President Wilson on his Western tour called Article XI, of the League covenant his favorite and the heart of the instrument, while in his more recent pronouncements to Democratic Senators on reservations he has insisted that Article X was the covenant's heart.

The President's illness had affected either the President's recollection or his judgment," said Senator Lenroot. "Has President Wilson changed his mind, or has the mind changed him?"

Mr. Lenroot said that the president was willing to see the treaty defeated rather than remove from American boys the obligation to go into foreign wars. He assailed Senators who voted the Irish self-determination reservation into the ratifying resolution, declaring that they did it in an effort "to put somebody in a hole," and told the Democrats that if they insisted on taking the treaty into the political campaign they would "insure a tremendous Republican victory."

The stubbornness of President Wilson is indefensible," he said. "We will meet you in the campaign as being for Americanism first; you will meet us as being advocates of the surrender of Americanism. We will meet you as Americans; you will meet us as internationalists."

Senator Edge of new Jersey urged ratification of the treaty and said that today's vote would show how many of those who voted yesterday for the Irish reservation were really friends of Ireland.

Walsh of Montana Switches

Senator Walsh of Montana, who previously voted against ratification with the Lodge reservations, and who through both fights on the treaty had stood consistently with President Wilson, announced that he would vote this time to ratify. Mr. Walsh said that he came to believe that the and others had overestimated the importance of Article X. The peace of the world would, in his opinion, be safeguarded as well under Articles XI, XII, XV, and XVI, as under Article X.

In a carefully prepared analysis of the various reservations Mr. Walsh gave his opinion of each. His speech was received with the greatest attention by Democrats.

Some thought that his change might cause a stampede to the Lodge reservations. This impression was heightened in some quarters when Senator Ransdell of Louisiana, another staunch Administration Senator, arose immediately afterward and announced that he, too, had decided to vote for ratification.

Senator Myers of Montana, Senator Walsh's Democratic colleague, in stating that he would again vote for ratification with the Lodge reservations, as he did last November, declared that the Allies were trying to make a travesty of the Peace Treaty and the League covenant at the very outset by yielding to Germany on the question of the Kaiser's trial and the trials of other Germans held guilty of complicity in offenses against international law.

"As well as try a horse thief before twelve other horse thieves or a bootlegger before a jury of bootleggers or bartenders as to make the grotesque and monstrous agreement that Germany shall try the war criminals," said Mr. Myers.

He declared also that the United States should not help Germany with money or food.

Senators Pomerene and Owen also spoke briefly, and then Senator Hoke Smith delivered a long set speech of which he had given notice yesterday.

Treaty "Gone," Lodge Declares

After the session ended Senators of both parties united in declaring that in their opinion the treaty was now dead to stay dead. Senator Reed of Missouri, a Democrat, one of the irreconcilables whose fight helped kill the treaty, said many Democrats who favored the treaty had told him that they were through with it unless the President in sending it back to the Senate, should express willingness to accept the Lodge reservations.

Senator Smith of Georgia said after the vote that he felt certain it would be impossible to get the Senate to give serious consideration to the treaty further as long as the same circumstances existed concerning reservations.

Senator Simmons of North Carolina, another Democrat, expressed a like view.

Senator Lodge said that the treaty was "gone." He declared that if the President should decide to send it once more to the Senate with another request that it be ratified, it would remain a long time in the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Senator Borah and the other irreconcilables were exceedingly well satisfied. They said that the Senate's action was but a forecast of what the country would do when the clear-cut issue of ratification unqualified by any reservations or rejection was presented to it.

Senator Johnson of California, one of the irreconcilables, left at once to resume his western speaking tour against the league and in behalf of his own candidacy for the Republican nomination for President. Senator Borah will go soon, and Senator Reed is also about to begin a speaking tour.

March 19, 1915
I went to Chartier to lunch and had a maquereau grillé and épinards à la crême. It was very strange to be there alone. I felt that I was a tiny little girl and standing on a chair looking into an aquarium. It was not a sad feeling, only strange and a bit ‘femmeseuleish.’ As I came out it began to snow. A wind like a carving knife cut through the streets, and everybody began to run. So did I—into a café, and there I sat and drank a cup of hot black coffee. Then for the first time I felt in Paris.

http://www.pals.org.uk/sheffield/casey_diary03.htm_________________
"A grand canyon has opened up in our world, the fissure, the crack, grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to."
-Stephen Fry on political correctness.

Major NIGEL WILLIAM FRANCIS BAYNES - Died 19th March 1915 - 1st Battalion
Born 21st March 1878. Commissioned 1900. Served in the Boer War. Severely wounded 21st December 1914 at Festubert. Died of pneumonia 19th march 1915, aged 37. Husband of the late Gladys. Buried at Marlow R.C. Churchyard, Buckinghamshire.

http://glosters.tripod.com/1915off.html_________________
"A grand canyon has opened up in our world, the fissure, the crack, grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to."
-Stephen Fry on political correctness.

Light Horse Squadron
The Light Horse squadron consisted of seven officers and 122 other ranks. The other ranks included 12 members of the 8th Light Horse Regiment who had accompanied Captain Wearne on his reconnaissance to Moiya Harab and four members of the 9th Light Horse Regiment machine gun section to man the Vickers-Maxim gun carried by the force. The squadron included three signallers equipped with a heliograph heliograph, Begbie lamp and flags. As this was the first offensive action undertaken by the Australian Light Horse in the Sinai Desert, it was imperative that it be carried out to an entirely successful conclusion. Squadron personnel were specially selected for the operation. Only the lightest men and the fittest horses in the Regiment were taken. All non-essential gear was stripped from personal equipment to lighten the horse's load. The following 9th Light Horse Regiment officers were included in this composite Light Horse squadron:

Major McKenzie was a graduate of the second class of the Royal Military College The Royal Military College Duntroon. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant on 3 November 1914 and posted to the 9th Light Horse Regiment. He was promoted Captain on 14 September 1915 and Major on 19 March 1916. He served at Anzac from May to September 1915, including some two months as Staff Captain on 3rd Light Horse Brigade Headquarters. At the time of the Jifjafa raid he was 22 years old and a squadron commander in the Regiment.

On this day in 1916, eight Curtiss biplanes from the U.S. Army’s 1st Aero Squadron—the country’s entire air force—flew into Mexico for their first military action. The target was Pancho Villa, the guerilla leader who had provoked U.S. ire ten days earlier by crossing the border to attack the small town of Columbus, New Mexico. President Woodrow Wilson ordered General John “Black Jack” Pershing to chase Villa down, and to use airplanes (the Army had bought its first Wright Flyer just seven years earlier) as part of the so-called Punitive Expedition.

The 1st Aero Squadron went along strictly as aerial observers and messengers. The JN-3 biplanes weren’t even equipped with machine guns, although a few of the pilots did carry pistols and .22 rifles.

Let’s just say that things didn’t go very well. By the end of April, every one of the airplanes was destroyed. And it wasn’t as if the squadron’s commander, Capt. Benjamin Foulois, hadn’t seen disaster coming. Back at the unit’s home base in San Antonio, he had struggled with incessant equipment problems, locked in a battle with the Curtiss company over shoddy workmanship and parts that constantly needed replacing.

Now, flying 100 miles into Mexico after dusk on March 19, he faced another problem. Only one of his pilots had ever flown at night. Halfway to Pershing’s camp the airplanes got separated, and cavalry had to be sent out looking for half of them. When the squadron flew its first reconnaissance flight a couple of days later, two airplanes were still missing and a third had already crashed after getting caught in a dust devil, stalling, and falling 50 feet to the ground.

On the first recon flight, Foulois and another pilot made it just 25 miles before getting tossed around by wicked up- and down-drafts in the 10,000-foot Sierra Madre mountains. They turned back.

And so it went. The squadron flew many successful missions over the next few weeks, scouting the enemy and delivering supplies and messages among Army units on the ground. But mostly, Foulois and crew fought just to keep their airplanes aloft, thwarted as they were by high-altitude flying, rough terrain, dust storms, engine troubles, and broken parts. One by one, the airplanes went out of service. On April 6, Capt. Townsend Dodd ran his into a ditch, destroying its landing gear. Lt. Ira Rader damaged his on April 14 coming down on rough ground. Three of the pilots barely escaped with their lives after landing on the outskirts of Chihuahua City, where an angry mob surrounded the planes and started burning holes in the cloth wings with cigarettes and cutting them with knives.

Despite all the mishaps, the Army learned a lot from the Mexican experience about how not to use its fledgling air force. When airmen were sent to join the fighting in France in 1917, they were far better equipped and better prepared. As Foulois wrote years later, “The work of the 1st Aero Squadron proved beyond dispute to the most hardened former soldier and congressman that aviation was no longer experimental or freakish.”

The following proclamation was issued to the inhabitants of Baghdad on March 19, 1917, by Lieut. General Sir Stanley Maude, shortly after the occupation of the city by British forces.

To the People of Baghdad Vilayet:

In the name of my King, and in the name of the peoples over whom he rules, I address you as follow:-

Our military operations have as their object the defeat of the enemy, and the driving of him from these territories. In order to complete this task, I am charged with absolute and supreme control of all regions in which British troops operate; but our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators. Since the days of Halaka your city and your lands have been subject to the tyranny of strangers, your palaces have fallen into ruins, your gardens have sunk in desolation, and your forefathers and yourselves have groaned in bondage. Your sons have been carried off to wars not of your seeking, your wealth has been stripped from you by unjust men and squandered in distant places.

Since the days of Midhat, the Turks have talked of reforms, yet do not the ruins and wastes of today testify the vanity of those promises?

It is the wish not only of my King and his peoples, but it is also the wish of the great nations with whom he is in alliance, that you should prosper even as in the past, when your lands were fertile, when your ancestors gave to the world literature, science, and art, and when Baghdad city was one of the wonders of the world.

Between your people and the dominions of my King there has been a close bond of interest. For 200 years have the merchants of Baghdad and Great Britain traded together in mutual profit and friendship. On the other hand, the Germans and the Turks, who have despoiled you and yours, have for 20 years made Baghdad a centre of power from which to assail the power of the British and the Allies of the British in Persia and Arabia. Therefore the British Government cannot remain indifferent as to what takes place in your country now or in the future, for in duty to the interests of the British people and their Allies, the British Government cannot risk that being done in Baghdad again which has been done by the Turks and Germans during the war.

But you people of Baghdad, whose commercial prosperity and whose safety from oppression and invasion must ever be a matter of the closest concern to the British Government, are not to understand that it is the wish of the British Government to impose upon you alien institutions. It is the hope of the British Government that the aspirations of your philosophers and writers shall be realised and that once again the people of Baghdad shall flourish, enjoying their wealth and substance under institutions which are in consonance with their sacred laws and their racial ideals. In Hedjaz the Arabs have expelled the Turks and Germans who oppressed them and proclaimed the Sherif Hussein as their King, and his Lordship rules in independence and freedom, and is the ally of the nations who are fighting against the power of Turkey and Germany; so indeed are the noble Arabs, the Lords of Koweyt, Nejd, and Asir.

Many noble Arabs have perished in the cause of Arab freedom, at the hands of those alien rulers, the Turks, who oppressed them. It is the determination of the Government of Great Britain and the great Powers allied to Great Britain that these noble Arabs shall not have suffered in vain. It is the hope and desire of the British people and the nations in alliance with them that the Arab race may rise once more to greatness and renown among the peoples of the earth, and that it shall bind itself together to this end in unity and concord.

O people of Baghdad remember that for 26 generations you have suffered under strange tyrants who have ever endeavoured to set on Arab house against another in order that they might profit by your dissensions. This policy is abhorrent to Great Britain and her Allies, for there can be neither peace nor prosperity where there is enmity and misgovernment. Therefore I am commanded to invite you, through your nobles and elders and representatives, to participate in the management of your civil affairs in collaboration with the political representatives of Great Britain who accompany the British Army, so that you may be united with your kinsmen in North, East, South, and West in realising the aspirations of your race.

The battleship Danton had left Toulon on 18 March 1917, after a refit and various trials, destined for Corfu to rejoin the naval forces deployed there. She was escorted by the destroyer Massue. 946 officers and sailors were on board plus 155 passengers - sailors returning to their allocated postings. The order to stand-by had been given on leaving the bay of Toulon.

The commander, Captain Delage, had decided to sail via Cap Corse and the Strait of Messina, but in the morning of 18 March, information was received advising the presence of enemy submarines on patrol in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The commander then changed his mind and decided to pass to the West of Sardinia.

In the morning of 19 March, coded information was received on board confirming enemy submarine activity near to the route chosen by the Danton, but giving no indication of a submarine alert to the South of Sardinia.

At 13h15 on 13 March the Danton was 28 miles South West of the Island of San Pietro, on passage at 14.5 knots on a heading of 140 degrees when she was suddenly attacked. It was the masthead lookout that raised the alarm on sighting a wake, originating close by: between 300 and 600 meters according to
witnesses.

The bridge sounded the alert. The guns were made ready, but because no periscope emerged there was no target and the ships artillery could not open fire.

The battleship was struck by two torpedoes in quick succession, forward and mid-ships. She listed 5 to-7 degrees to port, settled by the head and remained in this position. The sailors had the impression that the ship could hold like this. The commander chose to make for Bizerte but, after ten minutes, the list began to increase, slowly at first, then rapidly and the ship capsized after 30-35 minutes.It was impossible to launch the lifeboats, as all electrical equipment was out of action. Rafts and wood stored on the bridge were thrown into the sea.

The last order of the commander, stationed on the bridge, was to signal abandon ship. Then, standing in full view, he uttered the cry “Vive la France”. A thousand voices picked up the shout, repeating it three times, each man leaving the ship by jumping into the water either over the side or by sliding down the hull.

The destroyer Massue busied herself picking up the crew. In two hours she was able to save 500 sailors. The trawlers Louise Marguerite and Chauveau arrived on the scene and were also able to save more than 300 men, mostly survivors on rafts.

Captain Delage, clung to the bridge until the end and the majority of the officers and marines perished. 296 were recorded dead or missing.

The Massue arrived in Cagliari around 23h00 on 19 March. The French consul was waiting on the quayside with all the Italian authorities.On 21 March, the citizens of Cagliari, led by the archbishop and city officials accompanied the bodies of four sailors to the cemetery. The funerals gave rise an impressive demonstration of Franco-Italian friendship.

It emerged after the war that the Danton had fallen victim to torpedoes from the German submarine U 64.

Source : Service Historique de la Défense – Département Marine – SHM 7 DDI 782http://www.fugro.com/downloads/corporate/news/The_sinking_of_danton.pdf_________________
"A grand canyon has opened up in our world, the fissure, the crack, grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to."
-Stephen Fry on political correctness.

Russell was replying to a columnist who argued that those who accepted all the advantages of citizenship must not let others fight for them to preserve the civilisation.

To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian

Sir,

There are no doubt many kinds of reasons which lead men to become conscientious objectors, but I am convinced that the chief reason, and the most valid, is precisely that sense of "the solidarity of mankind" of "our membership one with another", which "Artifex" denies to us.

It seems to me that when he wrote "mankind" he was thinking only of the Allies.

But the Germans, too, are included among "mankind". The conscientious objector does not believe that violence can cure violence, or that militarism can exorcise the spirit of militarism. He persists in feeling "solidarity" with those who are called enemies, and he believes that if this feeling were more widespread it would do more than armies and navies can do to prevent the growth of aggressive imperialism.

"Artifex" repeats the argument that the conscientious objector accepts the protection of those who are willing to fight and that he will accept protection from the police and from penal laws, and pay taxes which support "not only the gaol but the scaffold".

But the conscientious objector only "accepts" that "protection" because there is no way of avoiding it. He has not asked for it and does not believe it necessary. For my part, nothing would induce me to prosecute a thief, and if there are any burglars among your readers they are welcome to take note of this announcement; but I shall be very much surprised if I lose as much through them as I have lost through the operation of the law. And is it not ironic to speak of the protection of the law to men for the duration of the war, with only occasional brief intervals for fresh courts-martial? Is there really such a vast gulf between Wormwood Scrubs and Ruhleben [a civilian detention camp in Germany]?

Yours, &c., Bertrand Russell, 17, Gordon Square, London, W. C.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/mar/19/1_________________
"A grand canyon has opened up in our world, the fissure, the crack, grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to."
-Stephen Fry on political correctness.

Mr. BILLING (by Private Notice): I desire to ask the Under-Secretary of State for War for what reason, if any, the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces failed to comply with his own announcement that he would issue a second communiqué on the Zeppelin raid last Friday-night giving further authentic details?

Mr. MACPHERSON There was and is nothing to add to the information which had been given in the communiqué issued. No lives were lost and practically no damage was done. In the circumstances 1556 the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief Home Forces decided that the issue of a second communiqué was unnecessary, a course with which I feel sure the House will agree.

Sir HENRY DALZIEL May I ask my hon. Friend whether, when a definite announcement is made, that a further communiqué is going to be forthcoming it would not be right and proper to say that there is no further information and so satisfy the country?

Refitted with a small, low-level island and rearmed 1939. Operated as ASW, convoy escort, invasion support and strike carrier during WWII. Participated in strike on Tirpitz.

Decommissioned to reserve 15 Sept 1944 due to badly deteriorated condition. Used as target/trials hulk after decommissioning. Sold 1/1948 and scrapped at Troon; scrapping completed 1954.

http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/carriers/uk_dev.htm#fur_________________
"A grand canyon has opened up in our world, the fissure, the crack, grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to."
-Stephen Fry on political correctness.

The late Duchess of Connaught: First instance of cremation in the Royal Family

THE King and Queen, the Duke of Connaught, Prince and Princess Arthur of Connaught, the Prince of Wales, Prince Albert, Queen Alexandra, Princess Louise (Duchess of Argyll) and Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein attended yesterday afternoon a special service at the Chapel Royal St James's Palace, preliminary to the burial at Windsor to-day, of the remains of the Duchess of Connaught.

The remains were yesterday evening privately removed to Golders Green for cremation.

This, it is understood, is the first instance of a cremation in the Royal Family.

The remains will be deposited in the Royal Tombhouse, under the Albert Memorial Chapel

THE STATUTES AT LARGE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1918
CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS OF THE TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS

March 19, 1918.

CHAPTER 24 - An Act To save daylight and to provide standard time, for the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, for the purpose of establishing the standard time of the United States, the territory of continental United States shall be divided into five zones in the manner hereinafter provided. The standard time of the first zone shall be based on the mean astronomical time of the seventy-fifth degree of longitude west from Greenwich; that of the second zone on the ninetieth degree; that of the third zone on the one hundred and fifth degree; that of the fourth zone on the one hundred and twentieth degree; and that of the fifth zone, which shall include only Alaska, on the one hundred and fiftieth degree. That the2 limits of each zone shall be defined by an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission, having regard for the convenience of commerce and the existing, junction points and division points of common carriers engaged im commerce between the severa1 States and with foreign nations, and such order may be modified from time to time.

Sec. 2. That within the respective zones created under the authority hereof the standard time of the zone shall govern the movement of all common carriers engaged in commerce between the several States or between a State and any of the Territories of the United States, or between a State or the Territory of Alaska and any of the insular possessions of the United States or any foreign country. In all statutes, orders, rules, and regulations relating to the time of performance of any act by any officer or department of the United States, whether m the legislative, executive, or judicial branches of the Government, or relating to the time within which any rights shall accrue or determine, or within which any act shall or shall not be performed by any person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, it shall be understood and intended that the time shall be the United States standard time of the zone within which the act is to be performed.

Sec. 3. That at two o'clock antemeridian of the last Sunday. in March of each year the standard time of each. zone shall be advanced one hour, and at two o'clock antemeridian of the last Sunday in October in each year the standard time of each zone shall, by the retarding of one hour, be returned to the mean astronomical time of the degree of longitude governing said zone, so that between the last Sunday in March at two o'clock antemeridian and the last Sunday in October at two o'clock antemeridian in each year, the standard time in each zone shall be one how' in advance of the mean astronomical time of the degree of longitude governing each zone, respectively.

Sec. 4. That the standard time of the first zone shall be known and designated as United States Standard Eastern Time; that of the second zone shall be known and designated as United States Standard Central Time; that of the third zone shall be known and designated as United States Standard Mountain Time; that of the fourth zone shall be known and designated as United States Standard Pacific Time; and that of the fifth zone shall be known and designted as United States Standard Alaska Time.

SEC. 5. That all Acts and parts of Acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Approved, March 19, 1918.

http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/usstat.html_________________
"A grand canyon has opened up in our world, the fissure, the crack, grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to."
-Stephen Fry on political correctness.

§ Major Sir H. HAVELOCK-ALLAN asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the good results recently obtained by a threat of reprisals, His Majesty's Government will continue this policy and extend its scope; whether he is aware that the French Government has secured complete immunity from submarine attack for their hospital ships plying between Salonika and Marseilles by including enemy officers among the passengers; and will he adopt similar means of ensuring safe transit for our hospital ships?

§ Mr. BONAR LAW I would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave yesterday on this subject to the hon. Member for the Ludlow Division. I may add, however, that the statement made in the last part of the question that German prisoners are now being carried in French hospital ships is erroneous.

§ Colonel C. LOWTHER Is it not the fact that the right hon. Gentleman informed me repeatedly during the first two years of the War that reprisals were entirely impracticable, and as their adoption has proved a great success should not their scope be extended in every direction?

§ Mr. BONAR LAW My hon. and gallant Friend's memory is too good for a statement I certainly did not make, because I never held any such view.

§ Colonel LOWTHER Does the right hon. Gentleman mean to imply that he never told me, in answer to very many questions in this House, that reprisals were impracticable?

§ Mr. BONAR LAW Never. A general statement of that kind I am certain I 816 never made. Of course, it is very difficult to recall everything that has been said, but I am certain I never made such a statement, because I never thought it.

§ Mr. BILLING In view of the desirability of rendering hospital ships immune from attack would the right hon. Gentleman consider the advisability of putting on board international financiers of friendly alien origin?

Three more men of Col. Henry J. Reilly's One Hundred and Forty-ninth
field artillery were named in the casualty list issued by the war
departmen at Washington yesterday.

In the list of "Died of Disease" was carried the name " Johnnie Wright,"
a pneumonia victim. A careful check of the complete roster of the
regiment disclosed that there was no "Johnnie" but that there was a
Don E. Wright, member of Battery B.

Parents Out of City.

Parents of Don E. Wright were found to be living in widely separated
parts of the United States -- the father, Dr. L. O. Wright, in San
Jose, Cal., and the mother, Mrs. E. A. Klingenberg, at Milwaukee.
Messages of inquiry were dispatched by THE TRIBUNE, but replies had
not been received at a late hour last night. Wright's Chicago address
was given as 3120 Calumet avenue.

Danville's list of wounded for the week was increased to eleven with
the wounding of Privates John E. McCabe and Elmer J. Bell, both of
Battery A. McCabe, who is reported severely wounded, is a son of Mrs.
Mary McCabe. Bell, who is only slightly wounded, is a son of Mrs.
Lida Bell. He has made his home at Danville for a number of years.

Proud of Wounded Son.

Mrs. May Whitford of Waterman, a Chicago suburb, was at work in an
American Red Cross shop there yesterday when she received a message
that her only son, Lawrence, had been wounded in action in France
March 13.

"I am proud of my boy," she said. "He is the first boy from Waterman
to be wounded."

James V. Lyons, a member of Battery D. Sixth United States field
artillery and son of the late Capt. Patrick Lyons of the Chicago fire
department, has been wounded and is now recovering at a base hospital
in France, according to a message received yesterday by his mother
from the war department. The Lyons home is at 1441 Hollywood avenue.

Influenced by the opposition of Henry Cabot Lodge, the United States Senate voted against ratifying the treaty. Despite considerable debate, Wilson refused to support the treaty with any of the reservations imposed by the Senate. As a result, the United States did not join the League of Nations, despite Wilson's claims that he could "predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it."

Wilson's friend Edward Mandell House, present at the negotiations, wrote in his diary on 29 June 1919:

I am leaving Paris, after eight fateful months, with conflicting emotions. Looking at the conference in retrospect, there is much to approve and yet much to regret. It is easy to say what should have been done, but more difficult to have found a way of doing it. To those who are saying that the treaty is bad and should never have been made and that it will involve Europe in infinite difficulties in its enforcement, I feel like admitting it. But I would also say in reply that empires cannot be shattered, and new states raised upon their ruins without disturbance. To create new boundaries is to create new troubles. The one follows the other. While I should have preferred a different peace, I doubt very much whether it could have been made, for the ingredients required for such a peace as I would have were lacking at Paris.

After Wilson's successor Warren G. Harding continued American opposition to the League of Nations, Congress passed the Knox-Porter Resolution bringing a formal end to hostilities between the United States and the Central Powers. It was signed into law by Harding on 21 July 1921

http://www.aeropedia.be/web/content.php?article.1000804_________________
"A grand canyon has opened up in our world, the fissure, the crack, grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to."
-Stephen Fry on political correctness.

http://www.geschiedenisnieuws.nl/?p=220_________________
"A grand canyon has opened up in our world, the fissure, the crack, grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to."
-Stephen Fry on political correctness.

19 March 1918 - Centenary of WW1 in Orange: On Trek by the Quarterbloke

I have gathered my belongings, and I’ve put them in my pack—
There’s a half a ton a-pulling and a-straining at my back.
And I’ve chucked my old tin helmet, and I’m wearing now instead
A collapsible gor-blimey, which is comfort for the head.
I have had my shoes amended, I have had my feet inspected,
I am passed as fit for marching by the mile.
I have had my hair cut freely, and my clothing disinfected,
But d’you think that I am grousing? I should smile.

There’s a little Frenchy village that we hope we’re passing through,
An estaminet pour Soldats where we used to parly-voo.
There are cider apple orchards we’d be most annoyed to miss
And there’s one or two among us with a girl or two to kiss.
There are fields all white with harvest, there are roads without a shell hole,
There are roofs without a hole to spill the rain;
So we can’t be very sorry when we leave this damned old hell-hole,
And Division’s going out on trek again.

We have done with endless strafings, we have done with standing to,
We have done with steel and bullet shell and shock;
And we’re going barrack-squaring, as the old troops used to do
In the days before the Kaiser ran amok.
We are leaving shattered houses, leaving desolated regions,
We are making for the townships might and main,
Till they turn us round all standing, the recuperated legions,
And they head us for the trenches once again.

For we’re going out on trek again,
Out of the line on trek again,
Back-areawards on trek again;
Our feet are all a-dance
Upon the good old cobble roads,
The humpy, bumby cobble roads,
The hell-for-leather cobble roads.
The cobble roads of France.

http://www.centenaryww1orange.com.au/events/19-march-1918/_________________
"A grand canyon has opened up in our world, the fissure, the crack, grows wider every day. Neither on each side can hear a word that the other shrieks and nor do they want to."
-Stephen Fry on political correctness.